Fresh Starts
by SassyRaydorGirl
Summary: There's something beautiful about having the chance to re-write your future.


**Unforgettable**

…

Eliot Delson had just finished signing off his budget report when he heard the alarm blaring throughout the Major Crimes building, he looked up and out in to the evidence room to see his team looking confused by the alarm. Getting to his feet, he made his way out of his office and in to the room, and over to his team.

"Jay, what's going on?"

"No idea boss, it's not the fire alarm is it?"

Cherie came rushing in and over to her boss, Jay looking up at his friend.

"Eliot, it's the hazard alarm?"

"We have a hazard alarm?" Jay asked.

"Well of course we have a…never mind. Do we know what caused it to go off?" Eliot asked her.

"The morgue apparently."

"The m…Burns and Wells, where are they?"

"With Jo…"

Cherie and Jay saw the slight panic pass Eliot's features before he turned on his heels and made his way towards the morgue.

"You want us to come with you boss?"

"Just stay here until I know more Jay, both of you."

…

Carrie and Al were outside the morgue when Carrie spotted Eliot walking down the corridor towards them.

"Al….Eliot." She warned him.

Al turned around, trying not to show any kind of panic so as not to concern his boss.

"Al…Carrie, what's going on?"

"It's nothing to worry about?"

"I'll be the judge of that Detective."

Carrie looked towards Al, before rolling her eyes at her boss, following his gaze as he looked towards the morgue to see the doors sealed off.

"Where's Doctor Webster?"

He turned to his two officers, taking in the look they gave one another.

"Okay, you two better tell me what the hell is going on…now?"

"Eliot we…"

"Jo was doing the autopsy on our latest victim."

"Or what we thought was our latest victim, now we're not so sure." Carrie added.

"Explain?"

"These spate of murders on the gay community, when we found this guy in the same area we assumed it was connected, same hight, features, traits."

"However?"

"When Jo was opening him up, there was a release of some sort of toxin." Carrie said.

They saw the look on Eliot's face when Carrie mentions the autopsy, knowing how much he hated that side of his job.

"What kind of toxin?"

"We don't know, Jo's face changed when we all smelt the aroma and she ordered us out of the room, we assumed she was behind us but then…"

"What?"

"She sealed the doors behind us." Al stated.

"She did what, that woman, I swear to god."

"She pulled the alarm and called the hazmat team, they're on their way now."

"I want you two to go up stairs and inform the team about what's happening and then I'll…"

"I'm afraid for now, that won't be possible?"

Eliot, Carrie and Al heard the voice behind them to see men dressed in yellow suits coming towards them.

"I beg your pardon?" Eliot asked.

"You are?"

"Eliot Delson, I'm the boss?"

"Mr Delson, my names Adam Quinn and these are my men. Right now I can't allow any of you to leave the vicinity until we have given you a full check and cleared you."

"I've only just come down, I wasn't even in there with them."

"No, but you're with them now. If they've breathed in anything they shouldn't have, or have any kind of toxin on their person then it could be easily transferred to yourself, so…for now, I'm afraid you're all stuck here."

"Wonderful." Eliot groaned.

…

Carrie and Al had been taken to the break room a few doors up from Jo's domain to be checked out while Eliot waited for his turn, he looked at his watch, knowing the others would be wondering what was going on. He saw the hazmat team with machines, going around the walls and rooms, searching for signs of any toxins. Eliot made his way over to the morgue, looking in to see Jo pacing back and forth as she waited for news. Eliot pressed the buzzer on the side of the door, so that he could speak with her.

"Joanne."

Jo looked over, seeing the concerned look on Eliot's face, something she hadn't seen in a very long time. She came over to the window, attempting a smile to him.

"Great start to the day Ellie."

"I though we talked about calling me that." He groaned.

"You're right, I'm sorry."

"How are you holding up in there?"

"Okay I think."

"Do you feel ill at all."

"A little bit of a scratchy throat and headache but to be honest, I was feeling a little under the weather before I even came to work this morning."

"Why the hell didn't you get out with Carrie and Al?"

"Someone had to stay with the body Eliot."

"But why you?"

"Because it's my job, you know me well enough to know I'd never abandon my post."

Eliot heard Jo cough, wanting nothing more than to drag her out of there."

"I think the hazmat team will be in there with you shortly."

"I'm sorry for this."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Still, I should have been on the ball."

"You're not well, we're all allowed bad days."

"You're being nice to me, it must be bad."

"I honestly don't know what's happening."

"Where are Carrie and Al?"

"They're being checked over now."

"Do feel okay?"

"I wasn't in there."

"No, but you were near Carrie and Al and if they've got whatever this is then you…"

"Joanne, let's no worry about that now until we really have something to worry about okay?"

…

Carrie and Al were seated side by side as the team checked their bloods, their blood pressure, and did some skin tests.

"How long will this take before we know what we're dealing with?" Al asked.

"We'll get these samples through now and we'll have them back in a few hours."

"What about Jo?"

Adam looked up at her, unsure at first.

"Joanne Webster, our M.E?"

"We're just about to go and test her now, she shouldn't be long behind you and we'll sweep the morgue and the corpse."

"What do we do until then?"

"You stay in here and relax."

"Relax." Carrie laughed nervously.

"I know this is frightening for you all, especially not knowing what we're dealing with but we will try to ease your mind as quickly as we can, I promise."

"Thanks Adam." Al smiled.

"We shouldn't be too long." He said, getting up to leave.

Carrie and Al watched as the door closed behind them, Al reaching over to take her hand.

"Jo's gonna be fine, and Eliot."

"I hope so, I really hope so."

…

Jo was leaning against the door, Eliot doing the same on the other side, not wanting to leave.

"You don't have to stay Eliot, I'm sure you have other things to be doing right now."

"I'm not going anywhere."

He looked up when Jo began to cough again, seeing the pale complexion on her face. He straightened up and faced her, the palm of his hand going to the window.

"Joanne?"

"I'm okay, really."

"You're starting to look worse."

"Thank you." She smiled.

"You know that's not what I meant, just that I…"

"I know what you meant, don't worry…I'm teasing you."

"Nothing new there then." He said, eyebrows raised.

"How did we get to this Eliot?"

"I think when Carrie and Al brought you that body."

"You know what I mean, us?"

"Oh…"

"I know you never forgave me for turning on the department."

"Looking back, I see now why you did. The way I was towards you was just, wrong."

"You had your reasons."

"No, no I didn't. I was just angry at you because you put my reputation at risk because of what you did."

"Your reputation wasn't the issue."

"It would have been to the top brass, I was with you at the time, I should have been able to talk you out of reporting the issues you had, and I didn't. They believed I'd lost control of my authority."

"Is that why you left after me?"

"More or less, as angry as I was at you for not backing me, I wasn't going to stick around to hear them bad mouth you."

"And here I was thinking you hated me."

Eliot looked up at her, offering a warm smile her way.

"I could never hate you Joanne."

Joanne smiled back before she removed her scrubs, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Joanne?"

"It's getting rather warm in here, isn't it?"

"I feel fine."

"I…I just…"

Before she could finish Eliot watched in horror as Joanne collapsed to the ground, panic filling him as he turned when he heard footsteps.

"Mr Delson, you and Doctor Webster are next, if you…"

"You have to help her, she's collapsed."

Adam came over, looking in to the morgue to see Jo in a heap on the floor.

"I NEED HELP OVER HERE." Adam yelled out.

Carrie and Al heard the yelling and came out of the break room, to see the hazmat team rushing towards Jo's office.

"Al…Jo?"

"Come on."

Al took Carrie's hand as they made their way towards the commotion, seeing a worried Eliot peering in to the morgue as the men assisted to Jo.

"Eliot, what happened?" Carrie asked.

"She collapsed, one minute we were talking and then the next she…"

Al heard the worry in his bosses voice, a hand on his shoulder.

"She'll be fine Eliot, it's Jo…she'll be fine."

…

Eliot, Carrie and Al watched as they attended to Jo, worry etched on all their faces. Adam's cell went off notifying him of what had caused the alarm to go off. He informed his men of the results before leaving Jo in their hands and coming out to inform the others of their findings.

"Hey, is Jo okay?" Carrie asked.

"I've just had word back from the lab, the toxin was ammonia."

"Ammonia poisoning?" Eliot stated.

"None of you were infected, you obviously weren't standing as close to the body as Doctor Webster."

"No, no we weren't."

"Will Joanne be okay?" Eliot asked.

"We're going to take her to the hospital and she'll be on oxygen for a few hours to get the poison out of her system but she'll be fine. She only inhaled a small does, not enough to do much harm."

"The body, how did it get in there."

"He was another victim, wasn't he?" Carrie asked, looking at Al.

"Must have been, we misjudged him."

"But the poison, I'll ask again, how did it get inside him?" Eliot asked.

"The most common way would be that he digested it, most likely he was forced to either eat something that contained it, or it was in something he drank. The toxin invaded his body and when Doctor Webster made the first incision, the gas was released."

"Are you taking her to the hospital now?" Eliot asked.

"One of my men will take her and the rest will stay here with me and we'll clean out your morgue, get rid of any remaining toxins and we'll handle the body."

"Very well, then I'd like to go with her to the hospital if I may, Carrie and Al you can stay here, carry on with the case and get Jay and Cherie to help you."

"No worries." Al said.

"You'll let us know Jo's okay?"

"Of course I will Detective Wells."

"Come on Carrie, lets get back to work."

Eliot watched his two best detectives leave before turning back to Jo, waiting until she was ready to go to hospital.

…

Eliot was outside Jo's room when the doctor came out a few hours later, carrying his charts in his hand.

"How is she Doctor."

"Your friend will be just fine, in fact she can go home now."

"So the toxins are completely gone from her system?"

"She's fine, she looks like she has the beginning of the flu which I don't think helped, but a few days rest and she'll be back to her old self."

"Thank you for looking after her."

"You're more than welcome, have a good evening."

Eliot waited for the Doctor to leave before entering the room to see Jo on her feet, putting on her jacket. Turning around when she heard someone behind her.

"Ellie…sorry, Eliot, I didn't know you were still here?"

"Ellie's fine, no I thought I should stay, make sure you get home al-right."

"I am capable of getting home on my own you know."

"I know, just let me do this okay?"

Jo saw something in his eyes she couldn't quite read so chose to agree as he walked her out to the car.

When they arrived at Jo's, he got her settled on the couch before going in to the kitchen, coming back a little while later with a cup of tea, some water and pills which he passed to her when he sat down beside her.

"Pills?"

"The doctor said you have the beginning of the flu, so this will hopefully knock it on the head."

"Thank you Eliot."

She took the pills without fuss before taking a sip of her tea, looking sideways at Eliot.

"You don't have to stay if you have things to do you know."

"You know, everything that's happened today, well it's made me realise something."

"What's that?"

"That maybe you and I, the way things ended with us back then…was a mistake."

"Oh…"

"You think I'm wrong?"

"You've spent a very long time resenting me Eliot, you didn't want me at Major Crimes remember."

"No I didn't, it's just as well you had Carrie and Al on your side. Joanne it's not that I didn't want you here it's just, that it brought up so many old feelings when I saw you again and I didn't really know how to deal with you again."

"Eliot, do you really think you and I together again would be a good idea. Even before my issues with the department, we argued."

"It wasn't arguments, it was differences of opinions. Every couple have them Joanne, and perhaps we just didn't try hard enough to push through them back then."

"And you think we could now?"

"I'd like to at least try, it you wanted too."

Jo smiled at Eliot before she leaned in, covering his lips before brushing a finger down his cheek.

"I never stopped loving you, you know that don't you?" She smiled.

"Me either, so….do you think we could survive one another again."

"Lets see shall we, lets see."

Joanne leaned her head on his shoulder before closing her eyes as she felt him take hold of her hand in his before placing a kiss to the top of her head.

…

-Fin


End file.
